Pipes made from metals such as soft copper, rigid copper and steel are used to carry many different liquids and gases. Various tools are employed to cut these pipes to the desired length. These tools include lathes, grinders, shears, power saws, hand saws and pipe cutters with a rolling disk cutter and rollers. A variety of connector systems are used to connect pipes together. These connector systems include threaded couplers that attach to threaded pipes, welded joints, soldered connections, compression connections, and flared connections.
Flared connections are commonly used today for a range of uses. They are relatively inexpensive, can be subjected to reasonably high temperatures and pressures, resist leakage of both liquids and gases, and are generally reliable.
A range of tools are available for cutting metal pipes to length as well as flaring the ends of pipes for flared connections. Some of these tools are large, expensive and non-transportable. Many of the tools require electricity. The tools that are transportable and manually operable are generally relatively slow, require substantial physical effort to operate, and frequently fail to produce acceptable results.
Pipe cutters with a rotatable cutter disk and rollers that engage a pipe to be cut tend to reduce the inside diameter of the pipe and can change the shape of a pipe if the tool user rushes the work too much.
Hand operated pipe flaring tools have a clamp member that engages the outside surface of a pipe to be flared. Occasionally these clamp members are not in the correct position relative to the pipe end. The flaring tool engages the clamp member and has a screw that is manually rotated to advance a conical flaring surface toward the pipe end. These flaring tools require substantial strength on the part of the user. An experienced user usually obtains an acceptable flare on copper pipe. It is much more difficult to obtain an adequate flare on steel lines. Steel lines are used for a variety of uses including hydraulic systems for mobile and stationary machines. The failure of a hydraulic line on these machines may require that the machine be shut down until the line is repaired. A reliable system for making a replacement line or repairing the old line, where the machine is located, is needed.